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The Impact of Continuous Quality Improvement on Pediatric Cardiac Surgery

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Pediatric and Congenital Cardiac Care

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Abstract

The recognition that outcomes in pediatric cardiac surgery were in need of closer assessment became evident in the early 1990s. The courageous disclosure by a prominent congenital heart surgeon of a cluster of surgical failures and the forced closure of two separate pediatric heart surgery programs suggested that more vigilance was required for this highly specialized area of surgery. The development of registry databases in Europe and North America for congenital heart surgery patients is described. The maturation of these databases and the development of a common nomenclature and risk stratification scheme are also reviewed. Now that pediatric cardiac surgery outcomes are being tracked reliably, significant variation in these outcomes within and between centers has become evident, especially with higher risk procedures. Strategies to address this variation and to improve the quality of pediatric heart surgery are discussed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Kosair Children’s Hospital, Louisville, KY, USA

    Erle H. Austin III MD

  2. Department Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of Louisville, 201 Abraham Flexner Way, Suite 1200, Louisville, KY, 40202, USA

    Erle H. Austin III MD

Authors
  1. Erle H. Austin III MD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Erle H. Austin III MD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Medicine,, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Paul R. Barach

  2. Division of Cardiac Surgery, Department of Surgery,, Division of Cardiac Surgery, Department of Surgery, Johns Hopkins All Children’s Heart Institute, All Children’s Hospital and Florida Hospital for Children, Johns Hopkins University, St. Petersburg, Tampa, Orlando, FL, USA, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Jeffery P. Jacobs

  3. School of Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA

    Steven E. Lipshultz

  4. University of Toronto, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Peter C. Laussen

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Austin, E.H. (2015). The Impact of Continuous Quality Improvement on Pediatric Cardiac Surgery. In: Barach, P., Jacobs, J., Lipshultz, S., Laussen, P. (eds) Pediatric and Congenital Cardiac Care. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6566-8_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6566-8_16

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-6566-8

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